London City

by Walter Besant

The same staircase by which we approach the dome takes us to the triforium over the south aisle of the nave. At the western extremity is the library, and in a room adjacent may be seen a large model which Wren made of his first design for the church. In the gallery at the west end is the collection of ancient records belonging to the Dean and Chapter—some of which are dated as early as the reigns of the Saxon kings, the immediate successors of Alfred.

A door into the south-west tower opens just beyond the library, and admits to the so-called geometrical staircase.

The organ was originally constructed by the famous “Father Schmidt.” He gave special attention to the wooden pipes. Some of his stops are still in use, but the instrument which formerly stood across the entrance to the choir and interrupted the view from the nave and the dome, has been divided and greatly improved, while some of the pipes, which were useless for want of room, are now placed in convenient spaces above the stalls and even in the triforium.

Returning to the dome we may see and admire the choir stalls, carved in wood by Grinling Gibbons. Beautiful wreaths of flowers, carved by him in stone, may be found in many places on the vaulting. The iron work in the gates, the doors of the choir and many other places well repays examination. It was chiefly designed by Tijou. A pair of bronze candelabra on the steps of the reredos are copied from an ancient pair in a Belgian church, which are said to have been taken from old St. Paul’s after the Fire.

In the south choir aisle are the altar tombs of Dean Milman and Bishops Blomfield and Jackson. A statue of Bishop Heber is at the farther end, and against a pier the (restored) monument of Dean Donne, from the old church, representing him in his shroud rising from an urn. In a modern chapel at the extreme east end is the altar tomb of Canon Liddon (d. 1890).

Very few of the monuments in St. Paul’s can be admired. Beginning at the western end the first we meet is a recumbent figure on a marble sarcophagus of Lord Leighton (d. 1896). Next is a low cenotaph to General Gordon, murdered at Khartoum, 1885. The great Wellington monument is still incomplete, but is the best example of English sculpture in the church. It was first placed in the south-west chapel or consistorial court, where it could not be seen. In 1895 Lord Leighton, at that time President of the Royal Academy, formed a committee which obtained leave to remove it to the middle arch on the north side of the nave. It is now seen to great advantage, though wanting the equestrian figure. The great Duke lies on his bier “with his martial cloak around him.” The “cartouches” at either side bear his arms, above the marble arch, which is supported over his head on composite columns. The shafts are formed of oak leaves. Two bronze groups on the arch represent Virtue trampling upon Vice, and Truth silencing Falsehood. Alfred Stevens, the sculptor, died in 1875, aged 58.

In the third bay, against the north wall, is the singular but poetical monument by Marochetti, of the brothers Lamb, successive Viscounts Melbourne. The elder, William, was Queen Victoria’s first prime minister and died in 1848. The younger, Frederick, Lord Beauvale, died five years later. An ebony door, on which the names and dates are inscribed in gold, is guarded on either side by the Angels of Death and of the Resurrection, sculptured in white marble. The design and sentiment excel the execution.

Several large monuments are in the south aisle of the nave, chiefly in very bad taste. Almost every panel in both aisles has its tablet commemorating naval or military heroes. The pulpit is a memorial of an officer, Fitzgerald; and the tombs of several other men of Indian fame, including three Napiers, are in the north transept, and compete in poverty of design and sculpture with Bacon’s absurd figure of Dr. Johnson, who was buried at Westminster, and his John Howard (d. 1790), the first statue set up in the church. Somewhat better than its neighbours is Rossi’s monument, in the north transept, of Lord Rodney between figures supposed to represent Fame and the Historic Muse. Nelson and Cornwallis face each other across the south transept, each surrounded by allegorical groups, wholly inappropriate to the place. There are also monuments of Sir John Moore, Sir Ralph Abercromby, Lord Heathfield, Lord Howe, Sir Henry Lawrence, and many more of which it may safely be said that not one is worthy either of the situation or of the personage commemorated. Mr. Birch quotes the opinion that at St. Paul’s the apostles are placed outside and the heathen divinities within. Much more satisfactory is the brief inscription over the inner portico of the north door which speaks of the career of Sir Christopher Wren “who lived not for his own good but for that of the public,” and ends with the words—“Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice”; to which we may add Wren’s own saying, “Building is for eternity.”

The roof of the choir and of the apse beyond it now glow, as Wren desired they should, with colour and gold. The designs by Sir William Richmond, K.C.B., R.A., have been carried out under his personal superintendence in English mosaic, which should be viewed with a strong opera-glass. The faces of the principal figures represented will repay a little trouble. The central figure at the east end is above life-size but carefully adapted to the general proportions, already mentioned, of the building. Each panel is a picture, and the scheme is worked out in the stained glass of the windows, while the harmony of colour, form, and proportion produces an effect upon the mind comparable only with that of the best music. Unfortunately, the designs for the figures of prophets and evangelists, under the dome, seem to have been made in ignorance or defiance of the conditions by which Sir William Richmond has been guided; while they are dull, heavy, and dark in colour. They were produced some fifty years ago, and have a highly discordant effect.

Sir William Richmond’s work has been carried out in conformity with a settled plan, based upon the proportions of the whole building. At the east end, the roof of the apse shows the figure of Our Lord seated, with uplifted hands. In the adjoining panels right and left are Recording Angels, attended by winged cherubim. The lower rectangular spaces are filled with figures of the Virtues and such scenes as the sacrifice of Noah and the blessing of Abraham. Many other allusive and allegorical subjects fill the panels of the vaulting as far as the entrance of the choir, supplemented by abundant gilding and by marble inlay, all carefully harmonised and subdued so as to produce a gorgeous but not a garish effect. The stained-glass windows are similarly subdued to the general scheme of colour, and the result gives great encouragement to those who would see the dome similarly treated if not the nave and transepts also—a work of such magnitude that few of us can hope ever to see it accomplished.